


Band-Aids Fix Everything

by secretlydickgrayson



Category: DCU (Animated), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Band-Aids, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team Fluff, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 14:04:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4837979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretlydickgrayson/pseuds/secretlydickgrayson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Kaldur's friends bandaged him up, and one time he bandaged up his friend. </p><p>Prompt was: bandages! maybe kaldur having a thing for bandaids and white gauze, like it makes him feel better/taken care of in a particular way? idk i feel like it's one of those surface-life things that seems really exotic and cool to somebody who'd from the ocean and therefore would not have experience with something like a bandaid, or that stage kids sometimes go through where they put bandaids on for emotional hurts</p>
            </blockquote>





	Band-Aids Fix Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this as a prompt fill on my tumblr and it kind of exploded? Enjoy! - Wing

**One**

It was just a cut. He was used to wounds like that; coral was sharp and villains had blades. His first time above the surface, he’d skinned his palms and knees by forgetting he no longer had three degrees of freedom. If it wasn’t deep enough to require sutures, such injuries were usually allowed to heal on their own, kept clean by the water surrounding them. 

This was just a nick, probably from some piece of shrapnel he hadn’t even noticed. So he didn’t understand why Robin was holding his arm, looking over the cut. 

“Aren’t you gonna clean that?” Robin asked. His eyebrows were covered by the domino, but Kaldur assumed one was quirked upward. 

“It will heal.” 

“Maybe, but you don’t want it getting infected.” Robin reached into his utility belt and pulled out a package, ripping it open to reveal a small wipe. When he used it to clean the cut, it stung, like when he went back underwater after receiving an injury on the surface. 

“Is this supposed to be helping?” 

“Oh! Right! You’re not used to this part. You’re gonna love this.” He reached into another pocket, rummaging through its contents until he found what he was looking for. He pulled apart a wrapper, sticking its contents onto Kaldur’s arm over the cut. “It’s an Aquaman one!” 

“What is it?” he asked. It seemed to be much like tape, but with some kind of cloth underneath to keep it from sticking to wounds. He supposed the pattern on it did resemble his king’s clothing. He’d seen them on humans before, but always assumed they were some sort of fashion. 

“It’s a bandaid! You put them on cuts and scrapes to help them heal.” 

His arm did feel better. Better still was knowing that his Team was looking out for him.  

“Thank you, Robin.” 

“No problem! There’s plenty more where that came from.” Robin grinned at him before disappearing, likely to assault Kid Flash with the multicolored bandaids. 

Two

 “You’re homesick too?” M’gann came up behind him as if out of nowhere, walking around the couch to settle next to him. 

“You shouldn’t do that,” Kaldur said. “I’ve asked you not to read my mind without my consent.” There was no real anger behind the words; he didn’t have the emotional energy to argue with a would-be comforter.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t  _mean_  to read your mind. It was just so loud and so sad.” She looked honestly sorry, so he let the matter rest. 

“Then yes. I miss Atlantis. The surface world is strange, and I miss my friends and family.” 

“Me too.” M’gann sighed. “I mean, I still want to be here! I’d rather be on Earth any day! It’s just…I had so much family there. And there were always people in my head. It’s so quiet with just me and Uncle J’onn. I can almost never hear him.” 

“You could…” Kaldur hesitated, thinking twice about what he was about to offer, but decided to continue. “You could listen to mine. For a short while. If it would help.” 

M’gann threw her arms around him. “Thank you Kaldur! I won’t pry, I promise!” 

 _Is it working?_ he thought. 

_Yeah!_

_Does it help?_ He offered a small smile. Offering her some slight solace had made him feel a bit better too. 

 _It does. Thank you._ She smiled back at him.  _I just wish I could–Oh! Hello, Megan!_ She flew out of the room.  _I’ll be right back. I just need to find…. That!_

She reappeared, clutching a small, violently pink box. 

 _They said on TV that these things help when you’re hurt. Turns out, they make you feel a little better when you’re sad, too._ She opened a pink package, pulling out an equally pink bandaid.  _May I?_

 _Go ahead,_  Kaldur thought. 

 _Aaaaaand here!_  She stuck the bandaid to his forehead.  _Does it help?_

 _It does._ If not the presence of the bandage, at least the care she’d shown him.  _May I put one on you?_

 _Oh! Sure! Go ahead._  

He took his time finding the perfect position, sticking it at an angle on one of her temples. 

 _Thank you,_  she thought. 

_Any time._

It was nice to have something like a sister.  

**Three**

Kaldur was thinking through might-have-beens. He didn’t regret leaving his education to help his king, and he certainly didn’t regret forming Young Justice. And he still counted Garth and Tula among his dearest friends. But still, each time he saw her was difficult. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.

“Come in.”

Conner walked inside and sat next to him on his bed.

“You okay?” he asked.  

“I am fine.” Maybe it was a lie. Explaining would be difficult.

“You don’t look it,” Conner said. “You still love her.” It wasn’t an accusation, just his typical blunt way of stating things.

“I do.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m glad you and M’gann were with me. Seeing her and knowing my feelings were not reciprocated was…difficult.” That was an understatement. He had barely had time to process Tula’s rejection before again returning to Atlantis and again fighting at her side.

“Thanks,” Conner said. “For inviting me. And saying that.”

“It is the truth.”

“You’re a good friend, Kaldur.” Conner avoided his eyes. “I’m better at punching stuff than feeling stuff, but I’m here. To…punch feelings. If you want.” 

“You’re also a good friend,” Kaldur said. “Thank you.”

Conner reached into one of his pockets.

“This is kinda cheesy, but there’s this thing M’gann does. Kinda helps when I’m upset.” He unwrapped a bandaid. It was a pale pink, with what appeared to be a white cartoon cat in the center. “You take a bandaid, and you stick it over what’s hurting.” He leaned towards Kaldur and stuck the bandaid over his heart. “It’s…supposed to help.”

“It does.”

“I gotta go,” Conner said, shoving his hands in his pockets and heading towards the door.

“Conner. Wait,” Kaldur said. Conner froze in the doorway. “Could you stay? Just for a little while.”

“Yeah.”

It didn’t fix anything, but at least he felt a little less alone.

**Four**

“Dude! You’re bleeding bad!” Wally’s face blanched as he looked at Kaldur’s thigh, freckles standing out even more than usual.

Kaldur didn’t feel dizzy at the sight of blood, but looking at the pool surrounding his leg, he felt faint.

“Hang on! I’ll be right back.”

Kaldur wouldn’t have known that Wally had left had it not been for the telltale gust of wind and the white plastic case now in his hands.

“You’re going to be just fine, okay?”

“Okay,” Kaldur said through gritted teeth. Suddenly his thigh was wrapped snugly in crisp white gauze, medical tape holding it secure. He’d seen it used before, even used it himself to bandage injured teammates, but this was the first time he’d needed it.

As he glanced back down at the novelty, he noticed the gauze turning pink with his blood.

“Kid Flash?”

Wally looked back at his leg. “Aw crap!”

“I don’t think I can walk,” Kaldur said. As he spoke, his leg was rewrapped, the bandaging again clean and white. This time, Wally’s hands were pressed firmly over the injury, staunching the blood flow.

“Don’t worry. The bioship should be here soon.” Wally watched his thigh carefully, grimacing as the blood soaked through again to soak his hands. At least it had taken longer than before.

They repeated the cycle of bandaging and pressure twice more before the bioship arrived.

 _Wally? Kaldur? Are you all right?_ M’gann though.

 _I’m fine,_ Wally thought,  _but Kaldur’s hurt. We’ve got to get him onboard in a hurry._

“They’re here,” Wally said. “You’re going to be just fine.” That was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

When he awoke, he was in the medical bay. Wally sat next to him, dressed in civilian clothes, hands fidgeting so fast they blurred.

“You’re awake!” Wally said, leaning towards him with a look of concern. “Are you okay?”

Kaldur looked at his leg. The gauze covering it was clean. The bleeding had stopped.

“I am, thanks to you.”

Wally looked surprised. “It was nothing. Just looking out for my teammate.”

“Thank you,” Kaldur said. He smiled, and Wally smiled back.  

**Five**

“Hey, we match!” Artemis said, waving her bandaged arm.

The lead they were following had been a setup. Artemis had gotten her arm cut by ninjas, who Kaldur would never be able to take seriously again after Wally’s turn to pick at movie night. Kaldur had burnt his arm on a piece of flaming rubble while rescuing M’gann from where she was pinned after the ninjas retreated and the building exploded.

M’gann had required more urgent attention after the mission ended, the fire and debris taking its toll on her, so Kaldur was still waiting to be patched up. In the meantime, Robin had ordered him to rinse his arm in cool water until the pain stopped, and then wash it with soap and water.

“I don’t understand why you’re excited about that.” Kaldur smiled slightly. He knew what she was doing, that she was trying to cheer him up and distract him from worrying about M’gann, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t working. Anything to help him forget the terror that went through him when his mind went quiet and he saw her lying there so very still.  

“Battle scars,” she said. “Hold out your arm.”

He complied, and she gently patted it dry before applying a cool ointment. It was no surprise that Robin and Artemis often took charge of caring for minor injuries; as the two without powers, they likely had the most practice.

“We’ll look kickass,” she said as she wound gauze around his arm.

“We will look like we have gauze on our arms.”

“But we’ll match. So it’ll look like we did it on purpose.”

Artemis finished wrapping his arm and taped down the gauze. She gently tapped the bandages over where his arm was burnt.

“Does this hurt?”

“No.”

“Awesome,” she said, smiling.

“Will M’gann be all right?” he asked. 

Artemis’s face fell immediately. “She should be. She probably won’t feel up to missions for a few days, but she’s out of danger.”

Kaldur sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

He watched her put on the smile again.

“And we’re gonna be just fine too. Bandage buddies?” she asked.

“Bandage buddies.”

**Six**

After the dust settled on the Reach invasion, Roy—or Red Arrow at least, the Roy who Kaldur knew—was nowhere to be found. He knew he had responsibilities to the team, but he also knew Batgirl could handle them for a night. He had responsibilities to his friend too.

He wanted to be found. That was the only explanation for finding Roy in the second of his safe houses he checked. When Kaldur walked in, he was sitting on the couch, staring at the television as Lian cooed in a bassinet next to him.

“Kal,” he said without looking at the door. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days, but Lian was clean and happy.

“Roy. What happened to you?”

“I got replaced. No wait. Sorry. I’m the replacement.” He laughed bitterly.

“After the battle. You disappeared,” Kaldur said, walking towards him.

“I’m good at that,” Roy said.

“And yet I found you easily.”

Roy flinched as Kaldur sat next to him and put an arm around him, but didn’t pull away.

“Yeah, well. You actually know me.”

“I do. And I know you deserve better than this.” As he spoke, Kaldur looked Roy over. “You’re bleeding.” There was a cut on the arm closest to him that looked to only recently have scabbed.

“It’s only a flesh wound.”

Kaldur had heard Dick, Wally, and Artemis say that too, and he was sure he was missing a reference, but he was equally sure that he was dubious about any media taste the four heroes shared.

“Where’s your first aid kit?” Kaldur asked.

“In the bathroom. Under the sink.” Roy motioned with the arm Kaldur wasn’t currently inspecting. “You don’t have to bother.”

Kaldur ignored him, and set about cleaning his wound.

“When I first came to the surface,” Kaldur said, “Bandages seemed strange to me. I’d made them of cloth and seaweed before, of course, but using gauze and tape and bandaids? Things that would peel away in water? They looked so clean and bright. When Robin first offered me a bandaid, I thought it was a strange custom. Some kind of fashion, or maybe a comforting ritual.” He started to bandage the arm. “It still seems like a ritual. When my team bandages me, it means they care for me.”

“I don’t need you to care,” Roy said.

“Yes you do.” Kaldur reached for the tape. “You need friends more than ever now. We’d all be there for you, if you’d only let us.”

“You left,” Roy said. It’s an accusation, and it rings far too true in Kaldur’s ears. “I needed you, and you left.”

“I did. And I’m sorry. I should have been here for you, but instead I let you think I betrayed you. And I will never cease to regret that.” It’s nothing he hasn’t blamed himself for a thousand times. “But I’m here now, if you’ll let me be.”

Roy nodded. Kaldur pulled a bandaid out of his jacket pocket. It was black and white, with an arrow pattern. At least the pattern might be amusing.

“There’s something we do,” Kaldur said.  “For our friends, when they are hurting. See, you take a bandaid, and you stick it on where it hurts. And it makes you feel better.” He unwrapped the bandaid and stuck it over Roy’s heart. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. “Forgive me.” His voice broke on the plea.

“What if everything hurts?” The sadness in Roy’s voice was overwhelming, and Kaldur pulled him into a hug.

“Then you let your friends help you.”  


End file.
